Winter Wonderland Tutorial

Welcome to this Christmas jazz standard lesson on the tune "Walking In A Winter Wonderland". The tune is often played at faster tempos, but for the purpose of this lesson we will approach the arrangement with a ballad feel.

The Form & The Chord Changes

The tune follows an AABA Form, and we are going to play it in the key of Eb Major. To create this arrangement, we have heavily reharmonised the original changes.

The A Sections are fairly simple to play with the repetitive melody and chord changes. The B Section is more harmonically complex and there are also some large interval leaps in the melody which makes it challenging to play in places.

Sus Chords & Suspended Harmony

We apply lots of Sus chords and suspended harmony. Sus chords often have a ‘bright’ and ‘floating’ quality and this makes them well suited to arranging these jolly Christmas numbers.

Upper Structure Triads & Altered Harmony

We explore some interesting applications of upper structure triads and altered harmony. If this theory is new to you, then check out the related lessons below where we discuss the underlying theory in detail.